Prattville (Pratt-vull)

 About 10 miles north, and a world apart, from Montgomery is the town of Prattville. In it's essence it is a bedroom community to Montgomery. Entering the town from I-65 you come to a "master planned" area. What this means is that you can see the stores but damned if you can pull into them. Nice area but street layout designer was high on something. They are a golf destination and hosted an LPGA event last weekend.

 But the history goes back much further and you find that out by visiting the old downtown area. It looks like you expect a small, rural town to look like.

 The main part of old downtown borders a creek that was the basis of it's birth and existence in years gone by.

I read this sign..

and looked at this fountain...

 And chuckled. Growing up there was an artesian well/fountain in downtown Humble that shot feet into the air. Oh well, one persons fountain is another's damp spot.

 Not a bad place, beats the hell out of Montgomery.

Restart on retirement

We closed the store at noon yesterday and boxed remaining books. Because there is no loading dock today we go back in and load them on pallets outside. Then it is sit and wait for Conway to come pick them up. Not a bad rush volume wise, it is just the system used is slow and cumbersome. After getting up at 5am and putting in 13 hour days, retirement sounds good. This little job has convinced Mary she can no longer do what she loves. While her back is pain free, repetitive motion really gets to her. We may continue these small 2 week assigments where it benefits us. Weather permitting, some history of a different sort this weekend.

A wrap on Montgomery

This post will put a wrap on Montgomery. While we will be here 8 more days, our reporting will focus on other areas.

 While Montgomery served as the capital of the Confederacy and that is recognized, it is overwhelmed with Civil Rights history. Let us start this photo journalism post from Civil War era.

 First White house of the Confederacy

This is known as the "gunboat quilt". It was auctioned off, returned and auctioned off repeatedly to raise funds to build gunboats. Supposedly it raised enough for two. You know Mary is a quilter so this caught her eye.

 A nice museum dedicated to Civil Rights. Had very high security like you would expect to see at air port.

 Historic churches associated with civil rights movement.

 And just pretty church buildings, First Baptist Montgomery

 A nice capitol complex that even in these times of high security we were able to walk right up to.

 This sign we found in the FREE history museum probably best signifies Alabama.

 Montgomery has had a troubled past and is still troubled. High crime, many, many abandoned and decaying buildings. Not the sort of city you would expect to find as a capitol city.

Connected!

Well we have completed our move,all of 10 miles or so. Hated to leave the trees and lake. We are now at a commercial RV park. That means fewer trees,more neighbors. But the trade off is cable TV and high speed internet. Our Mifi struggled in the river bottom.

An ant is about 1/32 of an inch in height. How does it detect a box of Cherrios not closed tightly, in a cabinet at top of RV about 11 feet above it? How does it know to climb whatever it climbed and the whole route to said Cherrios? Any super smart readers out there? And for all of you who think Mary is a sweet Angel, well just ask the ants she found...

More history later.

Praise the Lord I saw the light...

Thanks to Google Earth a overhead view...

Why a view of cemetery you ask....well focus on the center plot, just inside road on right side.


Still confused?

 Ground view of that plot. No, not a relative of mine other than being a fellow human.


 A little closer view perhaps

 You probably know by now but if not you are looking at grave of Hank Williams and wife Audrey.

 Nice resting spot on hill overlooking the Alabama river.

 To each their own but a little ostentatious for a 30 year old man who abused alcohol. Been to several grave sites of presidents and medal of honor winners, none even close to this.


 Praise the Lord, I saw the light...

Quick tourist opportunity

Combine the delayed opening of store, with a mandatory trip downtown to bank,throw in perfect weather and you have tourist time. Montgomery sits on the Alabama river so naturally you should have this:

 They have a nice area that includes an amphitheater,minor league ball field and play areas.

They also converted the old central train station into a very nice visitor center

Part of the area is called the "Alley" filled with restaurants and clubs. Dreamland Bar b que had rave reviews, unfortunately it was not as good as it looks

This weekend there is an LPGA tournament in Pratville, (more on that town later), drag boat races on the river and car races at dirt track near the campground. Also Sunday is moving day as we get evicted from Gunter Hill. Have enjoyed our stay there. We have obligations thru next Wednesday with college then some free time here till the 7th when we head to Florida.

A little history

Our route from Texas to Montgomery took us thru Selma. If you remember, from life or American history if on the young side, a lot of things happened there. As it is not easy to park 50 ft of rv we decided to return yesterday rather than stop on way in.

 As this is the 50th anniversary you might also remember news broadcast from earlier in the year. 50 years ago this happened.

here

 The route that the marchers took was the same route we had driven on Tuesday and again today. They have a very nice interpretive center at about the halfway mark. Also marked along the way were the various campsites setup for the four nights of the march. They walked about 11 miles per day, and the route is not with out some rather steep inclines.

We learned a lot that we did not know about this event. Having grown up in this time frame i was not ignorant of differences in racial treatment. I can tell you that life in Texas was very different than that of the deep south.